Effective Space

Lift Off!

The challenge:

Effective Space is a UK-based pioneer in the developing market for last-mile logistics in space. The company is deploying a fleet of small SPACE DRONE™ spacecraft that will provide, in phase one, life-extension services to operators of satellites in Geosynchronous Earth Orbit, including station-keeping, relocation, deorbiting, orbit correction, inclination correction and ‘bringing into use’. Effective Space had secured its first contract and wanted it known in the international business and specialist space media, but without being able to name the customer, how do you do it?

The solution:

Babel immediately recognised that this was a significant story and we were confident that the space/aerospace, engineering and technology media would be interested in covering the news but, as anyone who has tried to place a customer win story with the mainstream business media (particularly from a previously unknown company) will tell you, without a customer name, it can be a very tough sell. We took a sideways look at the challenge and instead of focusing solely on the contract, we pushed the benefit to the UK of Effective Space taking a lead role in a space sector that is set to generate billions. We sourced supportive comment from industry experts and the UK Space Agency, put together a compelling group of images and went looking for top tier placement – we wanted the most important international business media to kick off the campaign.

The outcome:

Our top target was the Financial Times and an exclusive was agreed with the title based on a detailed briefing prior to the release of the announcement. What resulted was page 2 coverage – a significant story accompanied by a colourful illustration showing the SPACE DRONE™ docking with a host satellite. The FT piece was followed by another similar article with the BBC and articles in every important space media title around the world that came about as a result of carefully managed briefings across multiple time zones. It was a highly successful launch by anyone’s definition.